No Music For Better Meditation

[JKG]

I love listening to music like almost everybody else. It is inspiring, relaxing, but sometimes also a distraction.

I often recognize that when I meditate there is a loop of music inside my head. Certain sequences of songs I like repeat over and over again in addition to all the monkey chatter. It is very distracting from my intent to search for truth.

I got the idea that quitting listening to music could be a solution. Then I'd have no music inside of my head anymore which could distract me. I could become more concentrated while meditating.

It would also be useful throughout the day to stay more focused at tasks or more in touch with the present moment.

I also assume that enlightened masters don't listen to music but rather live a life in silence.

Does anyone has tried this? Is here someone who does not listen to music at all? And what are the effects? Is it worth it?

[Aware]

@quantum  Yes Quantum, such a being is among you.

 

One that has dropped the attachment of music, games, books and movies. That has dropped to much eating, to much drinking, to much chatter with people about nonsense, has dropped wrong world views, bad behavior related to wrong intentions, wrong speech, effort, wrong acts, livelihood, attention and concentration.

Has cut away from the mainstream, from being rich, being a top university student having wrong friends.

There is a being among you that does meditate, has attained the vision of the perfect law of all, and shall not return to worldly activities no more that are stuck like fish in a great net and is certain in succeeding.

Has worked and still works hard every moment of the day and night, to attain the Supreme (Awareness that we all are), and will soon or later attain it, while being in the pure abode, all attachments resolve until nothing is left but that which is all pervasive, surely this being is calm, has a serene mind and remains unattached to sounds, tastes, feelings, smells and forms. And remains unattached to: Sense impressions, intellect, perception, mental formations, mental shapes and consciousness, like a lotus leaf held in water, remains un touched. And is mindful when it comes to the senses, while eating, drinking, listening seeing and feeling, and is mindful when it comes to his mental state, his body state, and feeling side of life.

Sure someone like this is among you.

Edited December 18, 2016 by Motus

[JKG]

On 18.12.2016 at 9:13 PM, brovakhiin said:

I have the same but don't really mind. The loops are there in the background but it's not different from a stray thought. If the loop is there, I'm either not focused anyway or not paying attention to it

Btw if depends on what type of music you listen to. Stuff with vocals is more prone to "looping". Rap, for example, seems to stay in my head while classical, which I have been gravitating towards lately, does not!

 

i don't listen to nearly as much music as I used to, just every now and then. 

I mostly listen to instrumental music but it also happens there. I always have this violin solo in my mind.  

I used to listen to much more music too.

 

On 18.12.2016 at 10:07 PM, Motus said:

@quantum  Yes Quantum, such a being is among you.

 

One that has dropped the attachment of music, games, books and movies. That has dropped to much eating, to much drinking, to much chatter with people about nonsense, has dropped wrong world views, bad behavior related to wrong intentions, wrong speech, effort, wrong acts, livelihood, attention and concentration.

Has cut away from the mainstream, from being rich, being a top university student having wrong friends.

There is a being among you that does meditate, has attained the vision of the perfect law of all, and shall not return to worldly activities no more that are stuck like fish in a great net and is certain in succeeding.

Has worked and still works hard every moment of the day and night, to attain the Supreme (Awareness that we all are), and will soon or later attain it, while being in the pure abode, all attachments resolve until nothing is left but that which is all pervasive, surely this being is calm, has a serene mind and remains unattached to sounds, tastes, feelings, smells and forms. And remains unattached to: Sense impressions, intellect, perception, mental formations, mental shapes and consciousness, like a lotus leaf held in water, remains un touched. And is mindful when it comes to the senses, while eating, drinking, listening seeing and feeling, and is mindful when it comes to his mental state, his body state, and feeling side of life.

Sure someone like this is among you.

I am also sure that such a being is among us. But it would be nice if one of those beings would give his opinion on this topic. There are many enlightened masters who are such a being.

I assume that an enlightened master would advice me on trying it out for myself. My intuition is telling me the same.

So in the next week I will stop listening to music for myself. Against external influences (family) I cannot do anything at the moment especially because of Christmas. I think I'll just remove spotify from my phone and from my computer.

 

[Aware]

@quantum You wouldn't recognize such a being as written in my post among the others. Not even when he would have posted here.

Yes, follow up your intuition. And meditate on this very advice that you recognize as your intuition, start listening to it what it has to offer. Maybe it spoke already before.

Edited December 20, 2016 by Motus

[Toby]

You can also listen to music that quietens your mind, which then helps you to meditate instead of activating thinking too much like a lot of music does.

[JKG]

@Toby Good idea. Thanks

[Prabhaker]

On 12/19/2016 at 1:36 AM, quantum said:

Is here someone who does not listen to music at all? And what are the effects? Is it worth it?

Meditation is the art of hearing the soundless sound, the art of hearing the music of silence. When you are utterly silent, not a single thought passes your mind, there is not even a ripple of any feeling in your heart, then you start, for the first time, hearing silence. Silence has a music of its own. It is not dead; it is tremendously alive. In fact, nothing is more alive than silence.

On 12/19/2016 at 1:36 AM, quantum said:

I love listening to music like almost everybody else. It is inspiring, relaxing, but sometimes also a distraction.

Whenever any art is perfect it ends in meditation — it has to end in meditation. If it is not leading you towards meditation then something has gone wrong. That’s why much of modern art is not art.

Much modern music is not music; it simply makes you sexually excited. It is just the opposite of real music. Real music helps you to transcend your biology, your physiology, your psychology. Real music takes you to the world of the beyond.

 Listening to great music you suddenly become silent — with no effort. Falling in tune with the music you lose your ego with no effort. You become relaxed, you fall into a deep rest. You are alert, awake, and yet in a subtle way drunk.